Beastie Boys & Ratking? So It Goes.

Courtesy of hypebeast.com

Ad-Rock, former Beastie Boys rapper, has posted a new remix of ‘Canal’ (listen to the original here) by underground New York rap trio Ratking. It’s a combo that seems to make perfect sense. It’s easy to see the correlation between wild New York trio Ratking and former punk-inspired misfits The Beastie Boys. RatKing entered the underground rap scene around 2012. The three members Patrick “Wiki” Morales, MC Hak, and Sporting Life were in their late teens in 2011 when they began creating hip-hop from their Harlem base. Laptop productions were uploaded directly video-sharing sites, where slowly but steadily, Ratking earned a following that ate up Sporting Life’s compressed productions and Hak and Wiki’s strange “cut-up” rhymes.

The group began gigging around N.Y.C. in 2012, and have since signed with independent label XL Recordings (home to Jai Paul, Jungle, Adele, Basement Jaxx, and others). Their debut album, So It Goes, dropped this year and features guest spots with King Krule, Princess Nokia, and Solomon Faye.

Ad-Rock took ‘Canal’ from Ratking’s album So It Goes, and stripped down the strings from the original track into harsh drums. The result brings forward Hak and Wiki’s vocals and stretches out the hook. His remix slows down the track, and isn’t as hard-hitting as the original beat, but creates an equally cool, creeping effect. It’s definitely not as gritty as the original, and smoother production doesn’t match the chaotic, underground, New York style that made Ratking famous.

Either way, a nod from a former Beastie Boys member can’t hurt the young rap collective’s career. Ad-Rock’s remixed before; he’s recently released a rework of tUnE-yArDs’ ‘Gangsta,’ and has remixed for the likes of M.I.A, Rammstein and Beck in the past. Listen to the Ad-Rock remix of ‘Canal’ here. While he’ll likely continue producing remixes, any chance for a Beastie Boys track is nonexistent.

In June, Mike D and Ad-Rock confirmed that they wouldn’t be making any more Beastie Boys music.After MCA died of cancer in 2012, Mike D says “we haven’t been able to tour” and “we can’t make any new music.”